“Enjoyed?”Darby was outraged. “Doesn’t even come close.”
“Listen, Darby.” She turned those amazing eyes on the guy. “I’m kind of on the down-low here, so if you could maybe—”
“Madison.” He plunked his fist on his paint-spattered Imagine Dragons T-shirt, right over his heart. “No one is gonna hear anything about you from me.”
“Thank you.” She blasted him that megawatt smile.
“God. It’s an honor. Words are not enough.”
Sten was thinking that maybe he ought to just fire the guy on the spot. That, or punch his lights out.
“Darby!” It was Marcus—at the front door, it sounded like. “Where’d you get off to?”
“On my way!” Darby turned to Sten. “Sorry, man. Really.” And then to Maddy, “What you do? Never stop.” And then he spun on his heel and sprinted off, leaving Sten and Maddy staring at each other.
“You told him who you were.” He didn’t mean to sound accusing, but the sight of her boxed in by a strange guy had his adrenaline pumping.
“Remember what I said about misdirection? Didn’t work on Darby. He spotted me and heknewit was me, so I had to go with it.”
She could have been hurt. “Was that smart?”
Her eyes got frosty. “I did the best I could, Sten.”
“The guy had you backed up against the damn wall.”
“He was a fan. It’s not a big deal.”
“I shouldn’t have left you alone in here.”
“Please. You had no way of knowing someone would recognize me. He wasn’t even in the house when you went out. I heard him come in the back door right after you left looking for that Marcus guy.”
“How did he get you boxed into the hallway?”
“I was already in the hallway. He spotted me as he went by and stopped to ask if I knew where that Marcus guy was. You should have seen him when he realized it was me. He did this double take and his mouth fell open.” She chuckled. “Really, it was kind of cute.”
“Cute? He boxed you in.”
“You keep saying that.”
“I’ll say it again. He boxed you in because I left you alone.”
She let out a groan. “Now you’re beating yourself up. Don’t. It’s not your fault. It can happen. And if I want to change things up in my life, I’m going to have to start developing coping strategies that don’t involve a round-the-clock security team.”
“Coping strategies? Some people are crazy. There’s no coping strategy for dealing with a guy who’s come unhinged.”
“Darby is not unhinged.”
“Close. Did you see that look in his eye?”
“It just surprised him to see some film star, here, in a half-finished flip house in Valentine Bay, that’s all.”
“Did he put his hands on you?”
“No, he did not—and as for coping with crazy people, yes, there are strategies for that. There are coping strategies for just about any situation.”
“Yeah, and you can cope your ass off and things can still get out of hand.”
“But they didn’t. It all worked out.”
